Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Nuclear-Armed Iran Would Be 'Intolerable' -Bush

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A nuclear-armed Iran would pose an intolerable threat to peace in the Middle East and a mortal danger to Israel, President Bush said on Wednesday, adding that any such threat would be "dealt with" by the United States and its allies.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=6&u=/nm/20040421/pl_nm/iran_usa_bush_dc

Any IT folks here? Is there any validity to this report (found on IH)

www.airsecurity.com

Worldwide: Internet security firms and government monitoring agencies are picking up a sharp increase of probing attacks directed at Secure Socket Layer (SSL) servers via networking ports 443 and 1025 on 21 April 2004.

The probes come days after Microsoft released information on a potential security vulnerability with SSL servers. The vulnerability would allow a malicious user to send a malformed remote procedure call (RPC) to an unpatched computer, possibly triggering a system reboot or eventually gaining control of sensitive information.

Officials are worried that the vulnerability will be used in a denial of service attack against e-commerce and secure database sites.

A security patch is available from Microsoft. The notification comes as the U.S. CERT computer monitoring group has released new information on vulnerabilities with the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) when relayed using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which could also allow a malicious user to deny service to an unpatched server. A patch for this vulnerability, which affects most major computer operating systems, is available from most vendors.

Based on past activity patterns, security officials believe that a new wave of viruses exploiting one or both vulnerabilities will be launched within the next several days, possibly over the weekend to make use of increased IT team response times. Malicious hackers will most likely target major unpatched servers identified in the probing attacks and use them as an initial distribution point to attack other secure servers.
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I am glad to hear this. Bush has nads. He is our ONLY hope to survive this war for our very lives.

In other news:

"Simply put, Kerry has a proud record of sacrifice and service whereas Bush has a record of cashed-in connections and evasion," McAuliffe said in a statement Wednesday.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson said, "Like so many of Terry McAuliffe's comments, this one is not worthy of the dignity of a response."

Got THAT right Christine!!

NOTE: This article is dated April 21, 2004 and is posted here intact (minus the graphics) with the permission of author Jeremy Reynalds.
===
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Jeremy Reynalds
Alb., NM 87125-7693
Tel: (505) 400-7145
www.joyjunction.org

"Behind Closed Doors there are No Moderate Muslims"

    Until recently college graduate Ishtiaq Alamgir was an accountant for England's Inland Revenue Service at Luton in Bedfordshire. Now Alamgir (who prefers to be called Sayful Islam – sword of Islam) can be found demonstrating outside the city's Central Mosque, criticizing police raids on suspected Islamist terrorists in the south of England and condoning attacks by Islamists across the world.

    A few weeks ago, Britain's Guardian newspaper (www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1183241,00.html) reported that Islam was distributing pamphlets outside a school. The pamphlet was adorned with a skull and the instruction, "Allah has prescribed jihad ... do not let the fear of death be the reason for you not engaging in this struggle."

    Islam, 24, quit his job to take over as leader of the Luton branch of al-Muhajiroun, the group which has been accused of recruiting young Muslims and preaching radical Islamic fundamentalism.

    For example. One recent comment from Islam reportedly read "I would like to see the Mujahideen kill thousands in London, with nuclear weapons or germ warfare."

    As London's Evening Standard reported, the irony is not lost on the unemployed Islam that Britain is supporting the unemployed him with benefits while he plans its overthrow.

    Islam's activities and the Evening Standard's coverage are a sore point with the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB). In a recent e-mail to supporters, organization officials blamed what they called the Zionist media for the Evening Standard's extensive coverage of Islam's activities.

    The e-mail read in part, "Zionist elements in the media - and God knows that they dominate that industry - deliberately use (radical) groups like Bakri's al-Muhajiroun and figures like Abu Hamza al-Masri to foster a climate of hatred against Islam and Muslims. It is going to be ordinary Muslims - including women and children - and our places of worship and even our cemeteries who as usual will be left to face the backlash as a result of the behavior and loose and offensive language employed by Bakri and Co."

    An editorial from the Evening Standard further irritated the ISB. The group said, "the Evening Standard had the gall to say that if ordinary Muslims did not have the courage to speak out against al-Muhajiroun that they could find themselves to be the targets of hate attacks."

    After urging its supporters to call the Evening Standard's editor and protest what it called the huge amount of coverage given to al-Muhajiroun, ISB commented "Be on your guard and do not allow morons like the above-named ‘Sayful Islam' to hijack the image of Islam in your locality. Organize yourselves better to ensure that the portrayal of the mainstream Muslim community is not subverted by a tiny number of fanatics with a divisive and violent agenda. Remember: if we are not willing to act decisively then we should only blame ourselves for what is happening to us and what is about to happen to us."

    In the article in the Evening Standard that so infuriated the ISB (www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/londonnews/articles/10329634?source=Evening Standard), reporter David Cohen said that until recently nobody took seriously the activities of al-Muhajiroun, led by exiled Saudi, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad, from his base in north London.

    Cohen commented that in spite of all its inflammatory rhetoric (www.muhajiroun.com) al-Muhajiroun has never been linked to actual violence. However, the Evening Standard continued, with last month's discovery of a half ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer - the same explosive ingredient used in the Bali and Turkey terror attacks - and with the arrest of eight young British Muslims in London and the South-East, including six in Luton, extremist groups such as al-Muhajiroun are under a renewed spotlight.

    Detectives fear, the Evening Standard reported, that so-called homegrown extremists leading apparently normal lives now pose the greatest threat to Britain's national security.

    The question is, the Evening Standard asked, how worried should people be? Do al-Muhajirouna and similar groups provide a forum for political posturing, or do they perform a more sinister function by brainwashing alienated young men into becoming potential future suicide bombers?

    Islam told the Evening Standard he is proud of his activities which have included covering the town with "Magnificent 19" posters glorifying the 9/11 suicide bombers. "When I joined al-Muhajiroun four years ago, there were five local members ... Now there are more than 50 and hundreds more support us."

Islam's Life Changes

    Islam's life has changed dramatically in the last four years. Back then he was a student completing his degree in business economics at Middlesex University in Hendon, north London.

    The Evening Standard reported that as the son of a British Rail engineer who came to this country from Pakistan, Sayful grew up in a moderate, middle-class Muslim family in Luton. At the local Denbigh High School, he is remembered as one of the smartest kids there. He would go on to marry, have two children and find work as an accountant for the Inland Revenue in Luton. He was thoroughly uninterested in politics.

    However, all that changed, the Evening Standard reported, when Islam met Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad at a local event. Within two years he had given up his job and become an Islamic extremist.

    Islam told the Evening Standard, "I made a decision that I wanted to follow what Islam really said ... I went to listen to all the local imams, but I found their portrayal of Islam was too secularized. When I heard Sheikh Omar [the leader] of al-Muhajiroun speak, it was pure Islam, with no compromise. I found that appealing. At the same time ... wars were happening in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Afghanistan. People were being oppressed simply because they were Muslim. Although I had never experienced racism in the UK, it opened the eyes of a lot of Muslims, including mine."

    The Evening Standard reported that the events of 9/11 crystallized Sayful's worldview. "When I watched those planes go into the Twin Towers, I felt elated ... That magnificent action split the world into two camps: you were either with Islam and al Qaeda, or with the enemy. I decided to quit my job and commit myself full-time to al-Muhajiroun ... I am a Muslim living in Britain, and I give my allegiance only to Allah."

    The aim of al-Muhajiroun ("the immigrants"), Islam told the Evening Standard, is nothing less than Khilafah, or the worldwide domination of Islam. The way to achieve this, he told the Evening Standard, is by jihad led by Bin Laden. "I support him 100 per cent."

A comment from an al-Muhajiroun Supporter in Luton

    Does that support extend, the Evening Standard asked, to committing violent acts of violent acts of terrorism in the UK?

    "Yes ... When a bomb attack happens here, I won't be against it, even if it kills my own children. Islam is clear: Muslims living in lands that are occupied have the right to attack their invaders," he told the Evening Standard..

    Islam continued. "Britain became a legitimate target when it sent troops to Iraq. But it is against Islam for me to engage personally in acts of terrorism in the UK because I live here. According to Islam, I have a covenant of security with the UK, as long as they allow us Muslims to live here in peace. If we want to engage in terrorism, we would have to leave the country," he said. "It is against Islam to do otherwise." That, Islam told the Evening Standard, he is not prepared to undertake.

    Like the ISB, Muhammad Sulaiman, president of the Islamic Cultural Society, the largest of the 14 mosques in Luton, dismissed al-Muhajiroun as "verbal diarrhoea."

    "They are an extreme right-wing group - the Muslim version of the BNP," he told the Evening Standard. "They think Muslims should dominate, just like the BNP thinks whites should dominate. They use Islam as a vehicle to promote their distorted beliefs, particularly to unemployed young bloods who are vulnerable."

    Sulaiman told the Evening Standard that Islam and his friends are not welcome at the mosque. He said while he is unable to prevent them from praying there, he will never give them a public platform. He told the Evening Standard, "I've told Sayful to bugger off and ejected him many times ... Even Sayful's father, who I know well, thinks his son has been brainwashed."

    However, the Evening Standard reported, Islam and his friends laughed at that idea. A friend of Islam's told the Evening Standard, "The mosques say one thing to the public, and something else to us. Let's just say that the face you see and the face we see are two different faces." Another friend told the Evening Standard, "Believe me ... behind closed doors, there are no moderate Muslims."

    Islam told the Evening Standard, "I want to warn that the police raids - if repeated - could create a bad situation. Islam is not like Christianity, where they turn the other cheek. If they raid our homes, it could lead to the covenant of security being broken. Islam allows us to retaliate. That would include ... by violent means."

    Bakri Muhammad and al-Muhajiroun

    Al-Muhajiroun's Omar Bakri Muhammad was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1958 and grew up in a wealthy Muslim family, becoming a serious student of Islam and the Koran. He received his B.A. in Shari'ah and the foundations of Islamic law from Shari'ah University in Damascus, obtaining a master's degree in Islamic jurisprudence from the University of Al-Imam Al-U'zaie in Beirut.

    According to the Middle East Media Research Institute http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA7301, Muhammad portrays himself as being the spokesman for bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders and according to MEMRI has admitted that the organization raises funds for the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and is "in touch" with the Hizbullah.

        According to MEMRI, Muhammad has lived in London since 1985 and preaches at a number of London mosques. He also routinely presents himself as a spokesman for the International Islamic Front, which he describes as being the political wing of bin Laden's Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders.

Thanks for that list AD. Bookmarked and saved.

I just read the latest from Sean.....gulp.....

No wonder the Russians decided to upgrade their internet service and detached from the net.
No wonder the cyberwarfare warning.

Here's what Sean posted on a different forum:

"It is now obvious to NEIN after collating events in the past 48 hours that the recent audio tape that was erroneously attrbuted to Osama bn Laden was in fact

an operational order for sleepers and regular cells all over the world to commence their operations.

It remains to be seen whether this is the long-anticipated "Cave of Darkness" operation, but there are event occuring which bear very close monitoring."

non sibi, sed patriae

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com

Fuel Rods Missing at Vt. Nuclear Plant
abc ^ | 4/21/04

Posted on 04/21/2004 7:11:03 PM EDT by knak

MONTPELIER, Vt. April 21 — Two highly radioactive fuel rods from a Vermont nuclear plant are missing, plant officials said Wednesday. Engineers were searching the spent fuel pool at the Vermont Yankee plant for the small rods, which were removed from the reactor in 1979.

"We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.

One of the missing rods is about the size of a pencil. The other is about the thickness of a pencil and 17 inches long.

Gov. James Douglas, after speaking Wednesday afternoon with the head of the NRC, said he was "very concerned" about the missing fuel at the plant, run by Entergy Nuclear.

"This situation is intolerable," he said in a statement.

In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for.

Vermont Yankee is located in the southeastern town of Vernon, on the border with Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1122053/posts

Man Trying To Buy Car Finds Out 9/11 Terrorist Took ID
KETV ^ | 4/21/04 | N/A

Posted on 04/21/2004 6:35:45 PM EDT by swilhelm73

A young man went in to buy a car and realized he had been mistakenly identified as a terrorist.

Ryan Allen (pictured, left), 19, turned up on a government list that includes Osama bin Laden and members of al-Qaida.

Allen wanted to buy a new Chevrolet Cavalier. He filled out the paperwork at a Kansas City dealership and then the results of the credit bureau check came back.

"I filled out the credit thing. I'm probably sitting there an hour ... hour and a half," Allen said.

But the dealership's manager came back with what Allen thought was an odd question.

"'Have you ever been to Yemen?' I go, 'No,'" Allen said.

That was enough to pique Allen's curiosity. Apparently when Allen's Social Security number was entered in the computer, it came up as Ramzi Bin al-Shibh (pictured, right), one of the masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Bin al-Shibh is on a U.S. Treasury list of so-called blocked persons, including terrorists. Financial institutions check this in part to make sure someone opening a bank account is not doing it to fund terrorism.

Allen did not get his new car.

"Granted, I'm glad I found out about it now," Allen said.

Allen is not sure how a terrorist ended up with his Social Security number. He believes it has to do with the fact that his birthday falls on Sept. 11. After talking to the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Treasury, the FBI, lawyers, and local police, Allen said that he is still not sure how to clear his name.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1122031/posts

Secret deal with al-Sadr led to Spain's leaving Iraq
Spanish media ^ | Apr 21 2004

Posted on 04/21/2004 5:59:24 PM EDT by george wythe

Agents from CNI (Spanish Central Intelligent Agency) close to the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) negotiate with Shiite to halt attacks to Spanish troops

The agents made a secret trip a week ago to negotiate a ceasefire with al-Sadr, and the Socialist Party was informed of the trip. The deal involved the Spanish troops not being attacked in exchange with immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

Al Sadr urged Zapatero to announce the withdrawal of the troops, a decision the Socialist Party intended to announce at a more opportune time, as soon Zapatero took charge of the new government. The objective was to isolate the American troops in the expected assault of the holy city to capture al-Sadr “dead or alive.”
Excerpted - click for full article ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1122019/posts

Rare Venus event puts it between Earth, sun
Enquirer ^ | 4/18/04 | Dean Regas

Posted on 04/21/2004 6:36:00 PM EDT by LibWhacker

The world was a very different place the last time a transit of Venus occurred on Dec. 6, 1882. This astronomical event is so rare, that no one alive has seen it.

A transit of Venus occurs when the planet comes directly between the Earth and the sun. Venus is then visible as a small beauty mark on the face of the sun.

The 1882 transit was visible throughout most of the Western Hemisphere. Viewing this transit took on extra urgency for astronomers and the general public because the next transit would not occur until this year.

So a long wait is over. On June 8, Venus will once again transit the sun and the eastern half of the United States can witness it.

Transits of Venus crop up in pairs eight years apart, but more than a century separates any two pairs. The transit this June will be followed by another in 2012 (which will be visible in the western half of the United States). But don't wait for 2012 - it could be cloudy on one or both of those days. And I'm sorry to say that you won't live to see the next pair in 2117 and 2125.

1631 and 1639

Johannes Kepler predicted the first transit of Venus in 1631. No one saw it. The Thirty Year's War, cloudy weather, and the short duration of the transit made observing impossible.

The next transit in 1639 was only viewed by two astronomers in England. Jeremiah Horrocks calculated the transit and employed his friend William Crabtree to observe from a neighboring city. The day of the transit started off cloudy. But late in the afternoon the clouds parted and Horrocks "beheld a most agreeable spectacle, the object of my sanguine wishes, a spot of unusual magnitude and of perfectly circular shape."

1761 and 1769

Not everyone was as lucky as Horrocks. European countries mounted great expeditions to the far corners of the globe to see the transits of the 18th century. If accurate measurements of the transit could be made at opposite ends of the Earth, astronomers could calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun (and also the distance to each planet).

Astronomers traveled to Siberia, India, Madagascar, South Africa and the South Pacific. Some were welcomed with clear skies. Others missed the entire thing.

One of the greatest adventures to see the transit of 1769 was led by Captain James Cook, who took his crew to the island of Tahiti. From Point Venus, Cook and company had perfect weather and a nice stay in a tropical paradise.

1874 and 1882

After 105 years, astronomers eagerly awaited the transit of 1874. Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, and America funded 62 expeditions to see it.

Astronomers used a new invention: the camera. The American teams alone captured 350 pictures of the 1874 transit and 1,700 images of the 1882 transit.

The transit of 1882 was especially viewable from the United States. And not just astronomers were geared up for the event. This was one of the most talked about cultural events of the year. This transit was continually reported in newspapers and sales for smoked glass (the "safer" method of observing the sun in 1882) skyrocketed. The New York Times reported: "This is the first time within the memory of man that the unlearned common people have been permitted to observe a transit."

Safety

Looking at the sun will damage your eyes, so the easiest and cheapest way to observe it safely is by looking through eclipse shades. For about $3, these glasses will allow you to observe the sun, transits, partial eclipses, and maybe even a large sunspot. Eclipse shades are available at the Cincinnati Observatory or from Rainbow Symphony at http://www.rainbowsymphony.com/eclipse/soleclipse.html

Don't wait for June 8 to see Venus. You can watch it blazing in the western sky after sunset, brighter than any other star-like object.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1122032/posts

In the last article above...It is interesting to see that 2012 date again. I wonder if it happens to be in December.

"The next two transits of Venus will occur on 2004 June 08 and 2012 June 06."

Nope...Not in December...Still interseting. The one this year happens just a couple of weeks before the "SnowBall".

Welcome LilyBean!

I remember you mentioned that a while back. You scared them away as I remember.

Tinfoil---possible cover-story to keep us calm if the internet starts acting flaky or goes down?

Re- the internet- I think they are aware of potential problems and are trying to alert us without causing undue anxieties.

Over at Mutter's, there is an interesting discussion about the Russians gaining rights to put a base in Venezuela.

Here is an excerpt:

" Russia has military base in Venezuela"

www.eluniversal.com/2004/...1825.shtml

There come the Russians!
Venezuelan government's space race

In the last few months, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has furtively visited Venezuela to sign agreements twice

President Hugo Chávez' administration has made a satellite launching base a priority policy

ORLANDO OCHOA TERÁN

SPECIAL FEATURE FOR EL UNIVERSAL

While the Venezuelans recently saw the show performed in La Orchila island by presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was signing agreements that allowed his country to install a military aerospace base in Venezuela, control the aluminum industry and construct "Latin America's largest hydroelectric complex" by the Caroní river.

Despite the evidences of the negotiations with Russia to buy guns and complex systems, the Venezuelan government has tried to hide them. The same happened with the accords signed with Ivanov during his visit to Venezuela on December 22 and 23, 2003.

In the crowd of mysteries surrounding these relations, a salient example is the memorandum of understanding signed by the Venezuelan Ministry of Science and Technology and Russia's Khrunichev Space Center to build a satellite launching platform in Venezuela. This agreement is the ratification of the letter of intention undersigned in 2001, also in secret, by then Science and Technology Minister Carlos Genatios and the Khrunichev Center's Director Alexander Medvedev in Moscow. Medvedev also visited Venezuela and stealthily met Chávez to discuss the "launching of communication satellites and remote sensors."

The space race

It is not easy to explain that a government that has proved incapable of simple tasks like cleaning the streets is now embarking in the installation of a satellite launching platform, making it a priority. It first openly made negotiations with a pirate U.S. company - the Lonely Star Space Access - and now is going to invest money together with government officials and military officers of the Russian Minister of Defense.

This "Bolivarian" version of the Star War arose in October 2000, when Chávez took oath to Oswaldo Contreras Maza as president of Citgo Petroleum Corporation and Contreras introduced him and General Guaicaipuro Lameda (then president of the state oil giant Pdvsa) to a group of oil executives in Houston. At the end of the meeting, the president went to a corner and had a talk with representatives of a mysterious company named Lone Star. The group was headed by the "space scientist" Norman Lafave and the "businessman" Rob Todd.

Two weeks later, in his Sunday radio-television show, Chávez gave the Venezuelans the good news: Venezuela would enter the space era. Todd arrived in Caracas that very week and announced that the initiative would "place Venezuela in the map of high technology countries of the world." The place chosen for the launching of a space shuttle was an old 2.7-kilometer track in La Esmeralda, Amazonas state. It was "the ideal geographic point because of its proximity with the Equator," as Todd put it. On November 3, 2000, CNN reported with irony: "Venezuela hopes to offer vacations on the moon."

The Cosmos Mariner, as the first Venezuelan space ship would be named, had to be ready by 2003 or 2004. When the government understood it was all was a Texan trick, then Chief of Staff Elías Jaua had this to say: "Actually, there is no site for the eventual construction of a satellite launching base with commercial purposes; no project, no certain fact."

The legend goes that after receiving an advance in dollars to realize this Bolivarian dream that Genatios had induced in Chávez' mind, the Texan cowboy of Lone Star raised his flag and continued his trip to the horizon. End of the movie. Todd just disappeared in the space, but Genatios did not quit hope. Whit his cosmogonic ambition still alive, the president decided to start serious negotiations with the Khrunichev Space Center - in the most discrete of secrecies.

Space and sovereignty

Why is this so mysterious? The Khrunichev Space Center is a unit of the Russian Ministry of Defense that builds UR-100NU (SS-19 Stiletto) missiles and other offensive weapons. In October 4, 2001, nearly a month after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, General Anatoly Perminov, commander of the so-called "special forces" of Russia, announced that a satellite of the Khrunichev Center would be put on orbit to monitor Afghanistan operations. This proves the military nature of the Khrunichev Space Center.

When Guyana negotiated with the U.S. space firm Beal Aerospace, Chávez almost declared war on the neighboring nation. Alarmed, then Foreign Minister José Vicente Rangel wrote in Caracas' El Nacional newspaper on July 27, 2000: "The Beal-Guyana deal is nothing but a vulgar 21st century edition of colonialist arrangements imposed by force or bribe on venal governments. (It is a) partial cession of sovereignty (...). The facilities will be located very near Venezuela, between the Guianía river and the Atlantic ocean (...), compromising the currently Guyanese and potentially Venezuelan sovereignty over a total 100,000 acres." Rangel now coordinates the agreement with the Khrunichev Space Center, a Russian military unit.

(snip)

I sure do. Are there any IT people here who could interpret the computerese in the post warning about a threat to secure systems?

Link to Thread 5

US Promises to Punish Those Responsible for Gruesome Iraq Attacks